Captain Hydra
by Punishers Apprentice
Summary: Rick Rogers is Captain America's clone created by Hydra to be the perfect weapon against their enemy. Can he live a semi-normal life?
1. Origins

Rick Rogers

Origins

The Avengers and the remaining X-Men (Magneto and Prof. X) were abducted by Hydra then lead to believe that Hydra was SHIELD underground. The false Agent Daisy Johnson showed Captain America his son, who attacked like he thought Captain America was an imposter. He verified Steve Rogers' identity and they joined the others. Hydra Fury was explaining a mission against the Sons of Sabretooth. After Mason Baker (Sandman's son) and his partner William Bench (Hydro Man's son) revealed they could transmute their hands into anything Rick Rogers took his cue and shot the 3 SHIELD agents dead. As he ran away with alarms going off he called "Hail Hydra," while passing another agent. The Avengers and two mutants were quickly apprehended. Rick got commendations for his part in the trap.

His next assignment was the Fantastic Four. He played Hydra traitor, trying to escape. The Four decided to help Captain America's son. They were locked up alongside the Avengers. What destroyed SHIELD, also wiped out most of the superheroes and villains. Using Rick, Mason and William the followers of Red Skull captured the remaining supers.

Rick is Captain America's clone, he doesn't lack a conscience. The world's supers were in Hydra's custody, in his Captain Hydra armor (with Hydra style shield) Rick walked through the prison. He stopped and turned to Captain America "So you're real. Thought you'd be shorter, strangely enough."

Captain America asked "If you're supposed to be my son then who's your mother?"

Rick admitted "No idea. I don't remember anything before Hydra. If you got my shield could you really shut Hydra down?"

Captain America was modest so Bruce Banner answered for him, "He can do a lot more than that."

Rick took his helmet off. "Simple head shot," he said as he disabled Steve's cell. Captain America understood, he took the shield, knocking Rick in the head as he slipped it on his arm. An agent saw the escape and soon Captain America had to use the shield. Rick had taken a dive since Steve didn't hit him hard enough. In the following battle between Captain America and Hydra agents, Rick slipped away.

He returned just as Captain America finished fighting, "Trade ya," tossing Steve's shield. Captain America returned the gesture.

Rick took a few steps towards cap before Red Skull appeared just inside the cell block. Electricity sprung to attack him from the cells beside him then the cells all opened to release the heroes. A boy stood behind Skull, Rick held his shield defensively until Marcus Matthews raised his wrist showing a red faced watch. Matt (his preferred name) angrily said "Subtlety thy name be not Rick."

Stupidly another boy walked over and opened fire on Rick from beside Matt. Rick got his shield up just in time and Matt blasted Thomas Schmidt (Tommy) back. When Rick got close to see if the gunman was an agent Matt removed Rick's returned helmet, apparently Tommy can't tell the Captain Hydra armor from a Hydra agent's gear. Lockdown alarms started, Rick pushed Matt into the cell block "Follow the plan." He and Tommy ran off while technopath Matt covered the heroes so agents would stay away, he returned Tony Stark's Iron Man armor and reconfigured a cell for Red Skull. Rick and Tommy took charge of Hydra. They disengaged the lockdown and slowly stopped Red Skull's plans.

Afterwards Tommy, Matt, and Rick moved into Avengers Tower. Hydra's bases were repurposed, like fake Fury had claimed they'd been with Hydra agents manning them in place of SHIELD agents. In essence SHIELD was replaced by Hydra, only the insignia and members changed. Life started pulling itself back together, Hydra and AIM had many pupils who transferred to the Xavier Institute.


	2. God of Hydra

God of Hydra

A few Hydra agents loyal to Red Skull mobilized in New York. "Hail Hydra. Hail the Red Skull." In his Captain Hydra uniform, Rick chased after them and easily took them down. He was trained to be Captain America's equal, his DNA was the basis for his rise. While he dealt with Red Skull's loyalists Matt and Tommy discussed why Red Skull even made a clone of Captain America, why not stop after Tommy, after first discussing Tommy's inability to control the agents. Rick came in as Matt said "Maybe he did it in case one went wrong."

Rick said "One did go wrong," in a way that didn't tell who. He continued "Maybe he did it to give you your own Captain America, to prove your place."

Then AIM jets flew up to the tower, the tower windows were already gone thanks to the Hydra agents. Rick knelt with his shield facing the jets, Tommy tackled Steve while hollering "Everyone get down."

Rick just stayed locked in his rigid stance, his Hydra shield by his side like he was kneeling beside it for cover. Matt said "Clear."

Rick stood, sliding the shield onto his back. He raised his right arm in Nazi/ Hydra style salute and said "Hail Hydra." Over the intercom the AIM agents repeated the phrase. He ordered "Maintain formation, return to base to await orders." The AIM agents obeyed then an explosion rang out, smoke was clear a few districts over.

Rick quickly convinced Tommy to handle it himself wearing a holographic suit, reasoning he had to handle MODOK on the AIM ships. The jets took a few minutes to turn, maintaining formation as ordered. He was able to jump on the back central one, MODOK's ship. Matt made the realization that Rick was created to be a god of Hydra that Red Skull could control.

 **Captain** Hydra

Once loyalists were dealt with, Agents began reporting in to Rick. During one report Rick was doing pull ups while balancing barbells on his feet, he gracefully dropped down from the ceiling of the gym losing the barbells safely and said "Hail Hydra."

The agent reporting in said "Hail Hydra," and left him to the trio of Avengers (Hawkeye, Falcon and Black Widow) who came in.

Hawkeye said "Tony wants to run some tests on you." Rick just walked with him silently agreeing. Tony tried to convince Rick that rebranding Hydra, literally making them into SHIELD, was the right move. The argument ended with Rick telling Tony to talk to Tommy about it.


	3. DC & Eminem

DC Eminem

To try to give Rick a normal childhood, arrangements were made for Steve to start working for the US government in Washington DC. Steve's fame gave him some perks like choice of job location. He and Rick moved into a normal apartment. Touring his new hometown on his own, Rick met and quickly became friends with a kid rapper. They found a rhythm where Blake would rap and Rick would break dance to the beat. He used his Captain Hydra training to do complex dance moves without any practice. Some kids tried to turn it into a competition or just mimic Rick. They would try his moves, fail and Rick would help them to their feet before they got hurt. People started recording him and Blake during their routines, the videos quickly went viral. No one even knew Rick was Captain America's son and that was part of the beauty.

Eminem even took notice before his tour took him to DC. After seeing the kid's skills and Rick quoting his songs he gave Rick 3 VIP passes. All Eminem knew was that Rick's dad was someone important who works with the military on recruitment and training 'and stuff' which is more than Blake, his only friend in DC, had known prior.

Rick had to run off because he saw a sergeant who worked for his dad at the corner, he met Steve in a cafe. Some part of Steve loved small business, back in New York he didn't like Tony Stark's extravagance even when it came to his choice of restaurants. They chatted as a father and son then Rick said "Fanboy 4 o'clock."

Steve invited the young boy who was staring over, the boy's mother got a picture with Steve Rogers. The boy's older brother recognized Rick from the viral videos. Rick invited him to the concert, simultaneously informing Steve of the tickets. Steve gave permission and assured the boy's mother they'd be safe. Rick liked to joke that he was Steve's vision, he was in videos encouraging kids to aspire to the military. Steve told the mother that his son could spend the night at their place, he later told Blake's parents the same thing so Blake could go to the Eminem concert.

Rick had 3 passes, one for him, one for Blake and one for the tourist boy. Thanks to his brief stint at the Xavier Institute and legacy status, Rick could drive them to the night's concert. Which he did, when they got there he saw Steve and Tony trying not to stand out then lead his friends over to them. A native of DC, Blake recognized the American hero. He said "Your dad is Captain America. That explains some things."

Rick said "I didn't know anything was unexplained with me." Rick turned back to Steve and Tony, "Tony is our chaperone. I could chaperone him."

Steve said "Your moms wanted an adult to watch you." Referring to Blake and Max.

Rick said "An adult, not a mature adult but an adult."

Tony said "I'm not babysitting anyone."

Steve said "Tony isn't a chaperone, he's just going to keep an eye on you."

Rick pulled on his lanyard with his VIP pass on it after seeing Eminem and his security going in. He and his friends joined Eminem, using their passes. Eminem invited Rick to join the concert but Rick declined. They enjoyed front row spots and hanging out with Slim Shady. Eminem invited them to join him between concerts the next day, luckily Max was in DC for the rest of the week. Rick drove them back to his apartment where they stayed in his room for the night.

Until Rick woke up coughing and out of breath, he barely made out the word "Desk." Blake opened his desk drawer, he had no idea what he was looking for. Max grabbed the asthma inhaler and gave it to Rick.

Steve stood in the doorway, "What's going on?"

Rick answered "I had an asthma attack, I think."

Steve said "I had asthma when I was your age. I'll schedule a doctor's appointment to be sure."

Rick said "Eminem invited us to hang out in between shows. I'll bring my inhaler. Can we go tomorrow?"

Max said "My mom probably won't let me."

Rick said "You could offer to watch your brother for a few hours. Don't mention Eminem, make it look like you're giving her a few hours to herself." He looked up to his dad still standing in the doorway, "Can I go?"

Steve said "Sergeant Corduroy will have to watch you."

Rick said "Done."

Blake pulled a Hydra helmet out of a box in Rick's closet, "Why do you have this stuff?"

Steve saved his son some face "That's where that went."

Rick joked "Great soldier, great hero, terrible mover." His friends accepted that answer. Hydra hadn't come out as the new SHIELD and were still regarded with fear and hate.

Steve took the box and said "Go back to bed." After a little conversation between friends the boys did.

The next morning they went downstairs and saw a sergeant beside a military personnel transport car. Steve ran up beside Rick and Sergeant Bullock, Rick said "This is not what I was thinking when you said you'd have Sergeant Corduroy watch us. I was thinking out of uniform with his personal vehicle."

Steve said "That's what I was thinking too."

Sergeant Bullock explained he was picking Captain America up for a parade. Rick pointed out he should at least have a name tag on, not touching on the fact that he would be wearing a more formal uniform for a public event. Rick sent Steve upstairs for his Captain America uniform, tapping Steve's watch to remind him he has a holographic projector he could give Bullock without embarrassing anyone. Bullock was able to point Rick to Corduroy's car. In the car Rick called Eminem, having received his number in case he could take Slim Shady up on his offer, he asked Marshall where he needed to go. They swung by Max's motel to pick up his little brother Will before going to Eminem's tour bus. Everything went well, Rick revealing he can play acoustic lead guitar as a way to impress Eminem and his friends. Then Rick collapsed without warning. Corduroy called his captain without a second thought. As if nothing was wrong Steve Rogers told him to keep the kids there and call an ambulance. Then he called Tony Stark, trying to get Iron Man to cover him in the parade, using Tony's love of showboating. After explaining the situation, Tony said "It's for Rick, say no more."

The crowds were easily distracted by the substitute Avenger, Steve Rogers put a jacket and jeans over his costume before hurrying to the hospital. After showing his ID he was able to convince the hospital to not use regular blood, since his son might not accept normal transfusions being his son got a variation of what made him special. He offered to donate his own blood if need be, they made due without it. He watched the operation and made sure to be there when his son woke up, he was getting better at being a father.

After all the fuss, Rick was fine. Rick Rogers had been poisoned but the hospital was able to treat him for it. They told Steve what caused Rick's collapse. One of the warning signs was being unable to breathe, Steve told them that he thought Rick had an asthma attack since he had asthma as a kid. It was at one point theorized the poison had been meant for Steve when Rick ingested enough for his age.

The embarrassing thing was Steve couldn't fill out the hospital paperwork for his son, simple questions like Rick's birthday got a big question mark. Steve explained that while Rick is technically his son he was raised by his maternal uncle. Steve got custody because his uncle was arrested. Steve still didn't know basic details about his son since it's not standard questioning to ask for those records. Instead of filling out normal paperwork for Rick at school Steve referred all questions to Rick's last school the Xavier Institute.

Rick's friends had a pretty good time after Rick was taken away in an ambulance. Eminem and his crew tried to keep everyone's minds off Rick, for the kids' sakes they convinced themselves. Max and Will left around lunch since they were just tourists and had to return to their motel. Blake left a few hours later.

Rick was discharged after a call to Charles Xavier gave Steve the right information to put on the paperwork for consistency with the school records. Going to the Xavier Institute was receiving private tutoring since Charles Xavier was the only instructor left. Erik Lehnsherr was unqualified without any interest in teaching. Without Jean Grey, the Avengers took care of medical stuff best they could which meant gamma expert Dr. Bruce Banner and engineer/ entrepreneur Tony Stark played doctor. Jean Grey was the only fully trained and licensed medical practitioner, aside from SHIELD but they fell first. So Rick's medical history was created from a scan Tony ran on him.

Rick still managed to perform as a backup dancer for Eminem. Then Hydra attacked a concert. They took everyone hostage. With the Avengers and two mutants visibly at their mercy the agents returned Rick his Captain Hydra shield. He knew they wanted him to turn the fans into agents and he turned their plan against them making one 'Hail Hydra, Hail Magneto', the others 'Hail Hydra Hail, Captain America'. In the end Tommy Schmidt stupidly tried to kill Rick with Rogers' shield, unleashing HIVE the true and ancient God of Hydra.

Matt and Tommy were prepared. Matt gave Tommy a full Hydra uniform and gave himself a Hydra agent's helmet. They paced around the possessed Rick chanting Hail Hydra, Hail HIVE. They stopped singing Hail HIVE, it fed the god. Matt found a way to trap the monster after admitting that killing HIVE would kill Rick. He sat beside his technopath made cell, trying to compensate for the lack of a sorcerer in the banishment ritual. That didn't work but killing Rick triggered his mutant healing factor, after a mental blast from Matt destroyed most of his head. After he healed, Rick made his way back to Avengers Tower. The remaining supers were whipped out by Frank Castle's successor after accepting the challenge from Iron Man. Luke Caster came in and as a sorcerer son of Loki he took advantage of the situation to undo the mass murder of supers committed by Magneto Junior.


	4. Vol 2 Hail Hydra

Hail Hydra

Outline

Rick walked up to Captain America from behind while reciting Oh Captain, My Captain. He told the Avenger he was close to getting into Red Skull's inner circle. His last test was to capture the Avengers, with that Hydra agents swarmed in. Rick didn't really beat the Avengers since they knew he was a double agent they let him win.

He met Red Skull after capturing the Avengers. Kneeling before his master, Rick was informed he was finally in. He followed Skull and they were hooked into a machine so Skull could transfer his consciousness into Rick. Unfortunately for Red Skull, Prof. X had set up psychic protection in Rick's mind. So Rick absorbed the information but Red Skull was left in his own body. Rick played the good soldier, like he thought the machine was meant to transfer information into him. Captain Hydra continued to loyally serve at the Red Skull's discretion.

Taking the first chance he got to slip the X-Men the location of the base the Avengers were locked up in. This proved pointless since the X-Men elected not to act on the information. Still Rick got the Avengers out, taking down all of the agents in the base. He took the Avengers to the X-Men base of ops. There he found out that the X-Men and Avengers were working with SHIELD in a task force capacity. SHIELD was to take Rick in as part of his ruse, the base holding the Avengers was taken by SHIELD. They wanted him to turn over the intel on Hydra, unfortunately the information wasn't that accessible. Rick and Charles were left in a room alone while the telepath searched for the information.

After Professor X found it, Rick surrendered to SHIELD. He was handcuffed and taken away by an armed escort. They locked him up in a cell outside the supervillain prison system. The truth is Rick never fought them. He just surrendered, letting them take his gear and toss him in a single cell.

The X-Men had a contact in Hydra, Red Skull's heir Tommy Schmidt. The Fantastic Four had a contact in AIM, the clone son of MODOK and a Scientist Supreme named Marcus 'Matt' Matthews. SHIELD was involved in all three teams' work with their contacts, they all used the same cover story (captured and interrogated by SHIELD) to hide their betrayals.

Everyday like clockwork, Rick was removed from his cell by SHIELD goons. He went to the base's lab and gave SHIELD intel on Hydra equipment. He was taken from his cell in cuffs to hide his blatant cooperation with SHIELD in case Hydra has agents inside SHIELD.

One day Matt had a revelation that caused him to trigger the mental blast ability in his eyes, Rick heard the commotion in his maximum security solitary cell. He looked up at the security camera in the corner and said "I can talk Matt down."

Director Nick Fury authorized it. Agents escorted Rick to where Matt was blasting everyone. Matt almost blasted Rick.

Rick talked him down "Calm down. You need a psych eval. There's no reason for this. Let the agents take you back to your cell and I'm sure SHIELD will get you that psych eval after all this." MODOK's son saw the logic and both clones were taken in. Fury spoke briefly to Rick, asking about the God of Hydra that Rick supposedly has within him. That was the last thing Rick consciously did, he thought he was taken to a dark SHIELD cell when really he was taken over by some entity outside of him. Professor X had given himself a way into Rick's mind, a secret path around the protection devices he'd placed that protected Rick from being taken over by Red Skull. Using this secret entrance he discovered Rick's consciousness, whoever was controlling Rick's body was a skilled mentalist because they not only got around Xavier's mental protection devices but did so in such a way that Rick didn't know he wasn't in control of his own body. In response to this news Wolverine reasoned Rick wouldn't respond well to the X-Men busting him out of prison and he could go in as a SHIELD agent to pull him out of the illusion without fighting Rick. The rest of the X-Men joined the battle against evil possessed Rick Rogers while Xavier and Wolverine took the psychic approach. Rick was freed as planned and was strong enough to retake control of his body.


	5. Vol 2 Avenger's kid

Avenger's Kid

After that fiasco the Avengers took Rick from SHIELD. Tony Stark forged records to make him Steve's son Rick James Rogers. Rick from Rick Jones. James from James Buchanan Barnes, the real name of Captain America's WWII sidekick. Rogers from his father. Rick was given quarters at Avengers Tower which he kept very bland, never decorating it. He earned perfect scores on every assignment and test at school, given that Tony encouraged him to transfer from the public school district to the New York Tomorrow Academy.

Rick stayed in public school, he kept earning perfect scores on all things academic. His freshman year, Rick's homeroom teacher Mr. Stevens tried to ruin Rick's perfect record. On October 8th, barely into the school year, Mr. Stevens turned around to face the class soon after the bell and said "Rick, you're late."

Rick said "No, I'm not, sir. I'm right on time."

Mr. Stevens said "Go to the office." Rick picked up his backpack and obediently left.

In the main school office he said "Mr. Stevens sent me down here. I think I'm supposed to speak with Principal Taylor."

The secretary, Ms. Allen, said "Go right in."

Rick did, he took a seat as the principal told him to. Principal Taylor asked "Why did Mr. Stevens send you down here?"

Rick honestly said "I took my seat at bell, he turned around seconds after the bell while other students were taking their own seats and said I was late. I politely told him I was on time and he sent me down here for back talk. The classroom security camera should've caught the whole thing if you would just look it up." Rick's perfect record and polite manners repeatedly kept him from having a disciplinary record despite his class sponsor Mr. Stevens' efforts.

His senior year, Mr. Stevens managed to get him forced into joining the football team. Rick took all the honors courses he could, even taking some online. He was a hardworking member of the honor society. He held a job, rode a bicycle and got perfect scores on all standardized tests including PSAT. Rick enjoyed the challenge of what he did as an overachieving student and employee. But he was still Steve Rogers, Captain America's son and that meant he was insanely well built. His senior year he lead the team to winning the championship.

While Rick was a nerd, being Captain America's son also factored into his life. Enter Zoey Dawson and her nerdy little brother Jacob. Jacob and Zoey were both loud moths but only Jacob was bullied because of it. Rick saw this happening once and did the right thing, he interfered to end it. In the long run this only made things worse because Jacob ran his mouth about Rick getting vengeance for him on anyone who messes with him. In the process of trying to get Rick to help defend her brother Zoey gave Hawkeye the impression that she was Rick's girlfriend. Rick took up shelter, from the insanity of the Avengers trying to parent him, with the Fantastic Four at the Baxter Building. Sue Storm taught helped him file his taxes. He did his homework there, Ben Grimm tutored him when he was studying for a standardized test. He helped Reed Richards with a few experiments.

On ditch day he met with the principal to talk about his disciplinary record. The principal agreed to erase his problems with Mr. Stevens from the record. Later that day, after encountering a few evil doppelgangers of SHIELD agents, he returned to fix his school record to get Steve Rogers listed as his father under emergency contacts so recruiters would call him not Tony Stark. His timing was perfect, Hydra wannabes had taken over the school. He had his father's shield, he handled the hostage takers unseen. He returned home after fixing his school contacts. "I took your shield," tossing the shield to his dad.

Before Steve could start on a lecture, his teammates turned his attention to the news. Rick said "I made sure no one saw me with the shield. Rogers isn't a very rare last name so even if someone at school noticed me they wouldn't know I had the shield."

Steve said "You did a good thing with the shield."

Later, Rick ran downstairs to meet Raven to carpool to a Habitats for Humanity build site. Raven told him she had business with Tony Stark first. He believed her and took her upstairs to talk to Tony. In the living area he noticed Raven had a mark on the back of her neck, he recognized the symbol and acted. In German she revealed her people were going to ruin his life before they kill him. Before she could tell him any details a fail safe was triggered in her head, she dropped dead. He let go, she slid to the ground. The world lost its mind after that, Rick was the target after all. He did a lot of running to the Baxter Building, Xavier Institute and Avengers Tower for backup to save his skin.

Rick Rogers, Tommy Schmidt, Marcus Matthews and the Avengers were captured. Since he was the main target that day, the captors showed no interest in anyone else. They tried typical torture tactics on him. The tormentor sunk a sharp metal hook through his back, digging into his spine. He pulled it out and sunk two into his back, near his shoulder blades. Seeing Tommy attempt the move, Rick remembered how to get out of the chains. He escaped and made quick work of the captors. More men came into the cell block, they opened fire on Rick, who remembered his healing factor. They ran out of bullets, Rick got out of the cell using the tormentor's key then took care of the guards and released the other captives.

It was not a fun ditch day. Saturday was much better, he got his volunteer work in and got to work on time. Then Red Skull had him kidnapped and he came face to face with his clone brother. Red Skull wanted the second clone to take care of the original failure. Rick dodged every shot and threw his holographic shield (a gift from Tony built into a watch) into the ceiling with perfect timing. Charles Xavier was on Cerebro, he felt the shift and helped get Rick to relative safety.


End file.
